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Asian bird flu strain surfaces in Siberia

MOSCOW, RUSSIA — Hundreds of fowl in Siberia have died of the same strain of bird flu that has infected humans across Asia, the Russian government said Friday.

No human infections have been reported from the Siberian outbreak, Russia's Agriculture Ministry said in identifying the virus as avian flu type H5N1.

Since 2003, the H5N1 strain has killed at least 57 people in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The outbreak in Russia's Novosibirsk region in central Siberia apparently started about two weeks ago when large numbers of chicken, geese, ducks and turkeys began dying. An expert at the United Nations said it was still not known how many birds have been exposed.